The use of interleaved films for optimising the production and properties of hot compacted, self reinforced polymer composites

This paper describes a new route for the manufacture of single polymer composites by combining the processes of hot compaction and film stacking. Assemblies of oriented fibres and tapes, were produced with and without an interleaved film of the sample polymer type, over a range of processing temperatures. Of particular interest was to choose temperatures so that in some cases only the interleaved film was melted and in other cases both the film and the fibre surfaces were melted, allowing a traditional film stacking process, a traditional hot compaction technique and the combination of both to be compared. The results showed that the combination of film stacking with hot compaction gave a better overall balance of mechanical properties and a wider temperature window for processing compared to a standard hot compaction procedure without a film. The combination process also gave much better wetting of all the oriented elements compared to a traditional film stacking process (where only the film is melted) due to the partial melting of all the fibre surfaces.